North West amateur Theunie Bezuidenhout will lead the chasing pack attempting to overhaul Roberto Lupine’s five-shot lead in the final round of the Pecanwood Challenge on Wednesday.
For a second successive day, former IGT Challenge Tour winner Lupine navigated the Jack Nicklaus-designed championship layout of Pecanwood Golf and Country Estate in 65 strokes.
The 34-year-old Country Club Johannesburg golfer cancelled a bogey at the third with a birdie at five to turn level for the day, but Lupine was all business on the back nine.
He racked up birdies at 10, 11, 15, 16 and 17 and eagled the par-five 12th for a second day running.
Sitting comfortably at the top of the pile on 14-under-par 130, Lupine is a strong candidate for victory and a return to the winner’s circle will be especially sweet after a lengthy lay-off after shoulder surgery in September last year.
However, Bezuidenhout showed a lot of pluck on Tuesday to overturn a devastating start and, if the young gun from Rustenburg can get it going early on in the final round, he might just have enough game to catch the leader.
Bezuidenhout was four off the pace at the start of round two, but drifted even further back after a double bogey at the first and bogey at the second.
“I hit a really poor drive at the first and my tee-shot disappeared into the trap,” he explained. “Then I went from bunker to bunker and eventually walked off with a seven. I hit a decent drive and approach at the second, but three-putted from nowhere.
“At that point, you make a choice. You regroup or you give up and I wasn’t ready to go home. I made a solid par at the third and I hit it really close at the fourth and boxed the putt for birdie. Then the putts just started to drop.
“I chipped it in for eagle at five, holed a 15-footer at birdie at six and hit it to six foot and holed the putt for birdie at seven. At the ninth I boxed another 15-footer for birdie and sunk a 20 foot putt at 10 to go seven under.”
And there was more to come as Bezuidenhout knocked in two more birdie putts at 12 and 15 to finish the round at nine under 135. He leads by one from Ruan Korb, who returned a 67 and is two shots clear of Wynand Dingle, who carded 68.
“It’s going to be great to play with Roberto, because he is a really experienced and Ruan and I can only gain from playing with him,” said Bezuidenhout. “It won’t be easy to catch him, so I won’t make that a priority. I’ll do my own thing, play the course and see where it leaves me.”
Second Round Results
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs are indicated as AMA:
130 - Roberto Lupini 65 65
135 - Theunis Bezuidenhout AMA 69 66
136 - Ruan Korb 69 67
137 - Wynand Dingle 69 68
138 - Wayne du Toit 73 65
140 - Gary Daoust (BEL) 68 72, Quintin Crause 68 72, Beyers Smith 70 70
143 - Tertius van den Berg 72 71
144 - Matt Bright 68 76, Mark Williams 73 71
145 - Marcus Smal AMA 73 72
146 - Hendrikus Stoop AMA 74 72, Duan Nagel AMA 76 70
147 - Ryan Wingrove AMA 73 74
149 - Matthew Rossouw AMA 75 74
150 - Romano Saincic 75 75, Michael Kok AMA 80 70
151 - Lydon Charnley AMA 78 73, WM Coetzee AMA 74 77, Deon Bredenkamp 75 76, Hendrik Janse Van Rensburg 80 71
152 - Zillan du Pisani AMA 76 76, Valentin Graus (NLD) 79 73
153 - Christopher de Beer AMA 77 76
154 - Cameron Gurr AMA 79 75, Brendan Britten (NAM) 77 77, Martinus Barnard 73 81
155 - Vian den Blerk AMA 78 77, Bryce Myburgh 72 83
156 - Dylan Morton AMA 77 79
157 - Jaco van der Merwe AMA 79 78, Andre Pistorius 76 81
158 - Gareth Anderson AMA 80 78
159 - Patrick Thompson 83 76, Ivan Bezuidenhout AMA 83 76
160 - Cameron Gunning 82 78
163 - Willem Visser 83 80
165 - Jancarel Rossouw AMA 83 82
175 - Jacques Snyman AMA (NAM) 90 85
WDN - Jonathan George AMA 88 WDN
RTD - Jay Dean Fourie RTD
- Author Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the IGT Challenge Tour.
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